At the risk of sounding indelicate, let’s just say I enjoyed this episode of “Justified” about as much as Marshal Tim was enjoying the challenge of protecting/keeping an eye on Raylan.
(“This s--- gets me hard.”)
Ok, so maybe not quite THAT much.
Watching this episode unfold gave me a new appreciation for the patience and detail that’s been paid to developing the relationships between this season’s characters. (Raylan and Boyd, Raylan and the Bennetts, Boyd and the Bennetts, etc.)
In fact, the one relationship I wasn’t completely feeling was the one between Raylan and Winona.
Last week, I thought they had some lovely moments, but I also noted that it probably wasn’t a coincidence that Winona was in the car with Raylan both times those hitmen appeared. This week, after spotting a careless, shivering, urinating gentleman outside Gary and Winona’s old house, Raylan was able to discover the Wynn Duffy connection…which meant Gary was behind it after all.
Turns out Gary had ordered the hit, but had second thoughts and tried to back out. Duffy wasn’t about to let him do that since Gary could link him to the hit, so Gary needed to go. Gary, being the true gentleman that he is, decided to piggyback on Raylan and Winona’s protective detail (courtesy of Tim and Rachel).
There were some darkly comic moments during the showdown in Duffy’s RV — I particularly enjoyed the straight-out-of-“Dexter” plastic sheet, and I’m generally a fan of Jere Burns’ creepy performance on this show — but overall, the scene was a letdown. It’s a shame because when Raylan declined calling for backup because all they’d do is arrest Duffy, we were set up for something really good.
Instead, nobody got shot and Gary was kindly asked to leave the country. On one hand, I like that Duffy is still out there to cause trouble. On the other hand, I had a big problem with Raylan’s reasoning for note telling Winona what Gary had done. He said that it would “tear her apart.” Would it though? Winona and Gary’s marriage is over and we saw them in a contentious divorce proceeding last week. On top of that, she KNOWS about his shady dealings. Does she care enough about Gary at this point that this would “tear her apart”? Would this latest scumbag-y move from Gary really shock her enough to “tear her apart”? I didn’t buy it. It seemed like the writers went out of their way to make Raylan look like a good guy. We KNOW Raylan is a good guy.
Fortunately, everything that led up to that (and the episode’s final scene) more than made up for that deficiency.
Some of the best stuff in this episode centered around the interplay between Tim and Raylan, who was admirably honest about his intentions to sneak away from Tim. The structure of this storyline — Raylan has SO many people that would want to kill him that he has to make multiple phone calls/visits — was inherently funny. Then again, the sight of Raylan walking in and finding Winona, Gary, Tim and Rachel lazily watching a Western on TV was more outwardly funny.
After confirming that the Miami cartel wasn’t responsible (don’t forget about them), Raylan visited a still beaten-down Mags (feat. the Oak Ridge Boys), who continues to take crap for making the Black Pike deal. Doyle popped in and stopped just short of whipping out a ruler in an attempt to intimidate Raylan, but the Bennett brother who was busiest last night was Dickie.
Dickie had recruited a new crew (with questionable aim) only to get ripped off by Boyd and his guys — including a gimpy Arlo — in the middle of a pot deal. Dickie wanted to get revenge, but two of his muscleheads didn’t really want to be in a gang war, so they quit. Unfortunately, their severance package was a couple of bullets to their heads by Dickie. I would’ve accepted this at face value, but this makes even more sense when you consider Dickie’s mounting frustration at not being allowed to avenge Coover. He’ll be damned if he’s not going to avenge being ripped off.
Since Dickie recognized that the masked, limping figure was Arlo, he took his remaining henchman and went to confront him. Instead, he found a shotgun wielding Helen. The tension and dread in this scene was both terrible and fantastic. As soon as Helen realized that Dickie intended to kill Arlo no matter what, she made her move. Cut to the outside of the house with two shots being fired and Helen letting out a cry. (That’s a cruel way to end an episode, “Justified”!)
This wasn’t a complete surprise after a wonderful moment of foreshadowing earlier in the episode where Helen tried to advise Ava on the proper etiquette of being the significant other of an outlaw.
Here’s why I’m loving all this stuff? Dickie may have been denied the chance to kill Raylan, but he still found a way to hurt the Givens. Meanwhile, Arlo’s partnership with Boyd is what got Helen shot, so I’m imagining Raylan is going to be almost as pissed at his own dad and Boyd as he will be at Dickie.
Speaking of Boyd, I can’t help but feel like he’s lying to Ava when he’s telling her that he’s going to be completely honest with her. The fact that his swastika tattoo was so prominently displayed in their bedroom scene together was a strong reminder that this is a bad guy.
So what’d you think of this episode? Why does Raylan know so much about ice cream? Have we really seen the last of Gary? Which pop culture reference from Tim did you prefer — “The Bodyguard” or “The Big Chill”? Finally, do we think that Helen actually survived and is NOT the person we saw being rolled out in that body bag in the previews for next week’s episode? (Instead, that’d be Dickie’s remaining flunky.)
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